Scheherazade by Alonzo King, music by Zakir Hussain after Rimsky-Korsakov

Out of the pages of the 1001 Nights and onto the ballet stage, the legend of Scheherazade gets a new, modern update in the stirring and singular vision of choreographer Alonzo King, who works his usual magic with highly fluid and energetic movements with the addition of Middle Eastern dance elements and non-Western forms. Minimalistic sets and costumes allow the focus to fall squarely on the spectacular dancers, including David Harvey as the sultan and Laurel Keen as the eponymous storyteller.

Composer Zakir Hussain used Rimsky-Korsakov’s iconic 1888 score—the basis for the opulent 1910 ballet by Michel Fokine and the Ballets Russes—as the starting point toward a uniquely immersive soundscape that incorporates traditional Persian instruments. Hussain’s wonderfully evocative music is a seamless accompaniment to a spectacle that is “both sensual and distant, hot and cool” (The Guardian).